Now that New York Fashion Week has officially jerked off, we’ll all be swamped with assortments, tendencies, models, and gossip for the next seven days. It’s an exhilarating period for Manhattan, a time when the city’s vital signs is impelling at marathon speeds to uphold its title as the social center of the world. And as such, all eyes will be on the runways. Yes, the strategies will be criticized and all of Anna’s movements will be chattered about over the digital frequencies, but there’s additional discussion to be had as we click-clack our way to Lincoln Center: Just in what way “real” is the fashion industry anyhow?

Similar to science literature, fashion isn’t just about beautiful cloths and knock-out lovely appearances; it’s a business and talent form. On a profounder level, it imitates the existing state of matters energetic through the zeitgeist – the comfortable the world feels, the plusher the runways. During the slump, the assortments were dim, weighty, and comparatively free of luxury. But, the world we’ve had echoed back to us in preceding periods has been far from authenticity. On the shallow, the runways have become tremendously whitewashed. The miscellaneous realism of the customers is still airborne in a midpoint that, when working, is more for token use than a measured one.

Outside race, the discussion concerning a model’s weight and age have still not touched a solid assumption. Development is being made ethically and closer by with the CFDA’s Health Initiative, but even that is a morally charitable promise much like the means of manufacture that stylists select to work. With the echo of last April’s Bangladesh shop failure ringing in its ears, the industry is leisurely coming to terms with the comparative position of being clear when it comes to its procedures. Even as stylists like Anna Sui and Nanette Lepore work to save New York’s garment district, the bulk of Americans don’t care whether their acquisitions are prepared in America or not. The industry is still motivated to subcontract items, rather than paying local artistes to respire life into their designs.

Change is fashionable, though. With Eden Miller’s plus-size show premiering this week at Lincoln Center, the industry will have to aspect the realism of the real woman. Initiatives by the CFDA and New York City’s Economic Development Corporation have recognized an account to assist besieged American factories gain impetus again. It might be too quick to expect the precise influence, but spring ‘14 will be an effective time for the industry. Will it instigate to support itself for the wave designers like Miller and the CFDA have started, or will they endure to obverse alteration without following through? As realism is frequently a rude wake-up call no one wants to hear, an intelligent move would be to trip it, but we won’t find out until we get to the flip side.